Punch Taverns, a leading pub company in the UK, have introduced a new Mystery Shopping Programme to provide feedback for their leased and tenanted pubs.
The programme will start at the beginning of February when the first pubs will receive two mystery visits over a 12-week period.
Pubs will be graded on all major areas of the business, including the external appearance and first impressions, promotions and marketing, the drink and food experience, staff interaction and overall facilities. The mystery shopper programme will provide detailed comments that the pubs can use to improve quality and standards.
Once both visits have been completed a report will be compiled and will be presented to the licensees by their Partnership Development Manager (PDM) where they will work together to create an action-plan.
Market Force, one of the market leaders in customer intelligence, will conduct the mystery visits using genuine consumers and provide Punch PDMs with the report.
Paul Pavli, Operations Director at Punch Taverns, explains the benefits: “By conducting the programme in association with Market Force it adds credibility, as it is offering impartial, third-party feedback from a customer point of view. It is another tool for our PDMs to use to help our licensees improve their operation and overall retail offer.
“It will highlight any areas for improvement and more importantly, things the pub does well so our Partners can continue to grow their business successfully.”
Lee Freeman, who has been running the Kennington in South London for 12 months, found the feedback particularly beneficial: “For us, it praised the favourable and inviting appearance of the pub whilst identifying some customer service issues. We actioned this by training our staff to offer a warm and welcoming service with a smile, and that this was a consistent behaviour.
“As a result, we have achieved a reputation for our friendly service. I feel that this is key to not only the overall customer experience, but to the success of my pub business overall.”
For Stephen McNaughton, who manages the Cricketers in Gillingham, he found the feedback extremely positive but stressed the importance of having two visits to create a representative report: “After scoring low on customer service after the first visit, we increased staffing levels and improved with a score of 100 per cent second time round.
“We were praised on how approachable the staff were, greeting customers in a polite and timely manner. I sat down and told staff the feedback and they were extremely proud of their hard work – this boosted staff morale and encouraged them to continue to keep up the high quality service standards.”
“Punch is the first leased and tenanted pub company to conduct a consumer feedback programme on such a large-scale,” Paul points out.
“By September, the first phase of the programme will have been completed and 1,500 pubs will have consumer feedback and an action plan to work with. They will ultimately see improvement over time from the feedback received.
“Overall, this programme is an important component in our strategy for developing the highest quality leased and tenanted pub businesses in our sector,” he added.